New Delhi, Jan 6 (IANS): A majority of Indians are sympathetic to the cause of doctors who have been agitating for months demanding some basic facilities and policy decisions that have been pending since Covid struck India, as per IANS-CVoter Omicron Snap Poll.

The snap poll had a sample size of 1,942. The most contentious issue is that of the tens of thousands of doctors seeking admissions into post graduation courses, which is very important for their future careers. When asked about the issue, 37.5 per cent of the respondents were of the opinion that the government must accept all the demands of the doctors and resolve the issue on a priority basis. Another 35.8 per cent felt that the government should negotiate with them and arrive soon at a solution. Only about 5 per cent expressed no opinion.

To sum up, more than 84 per cent of Indians want the government to urgently talk to and listen to the doctors and resolve their issues.

This becomes very important as the third wave has already hit India and things threaten to become worse when doctors would be even more urgently required.

In fact, the third wave is hitting far more doctors than in the first and second wave and any move by desperate doctors to stop going to hospitals could prove to be a disaster.

The basic problem is that doctors, who have cleared their MBBS exams, have not been able to enroll for post graduation and specialisation programmes that are an integral part of their qualification process.

Apart from Covid related issues, the matter is pending in the Supreme Court and there appears to be no sense of urgency shown to resolve the issue.

Many doctors, fearful of contempt action against them, privately criticise the Court for focusing more on giving lectures to Indians than resolving career threatening issues confronting doctors in the midst of a pandemic.

Since public awareness on this issue is low, only 6.5 per cent of respondents were of the view that the government couldn't do anything as the matter was pending in the Supreme Court.